BIRD, BEAST AND HUNTER.. 27 
attempt at self-government. Thence came as well “the 
pomp and circumstance” of tournaments and hunts, in which 
“the civil courteseys” of polished intercourse was most deli- 
cately defined, even amidst the stern collisions of opposing 
forces, and from which all those beautiful amenities, named 
politeness by modern civilization, had their truest source. 
Then the human chased the brute, surrounded by all the 
regalia of a more exalted state, and the physical was culti- 
vated through magnificence. Then “crested chiefs, and 
tissued dames,” were not above being thoroughly developed 
men and women. Animals now arose to a more correct esti- 
mation, and under the proper culture, soon became rather the 
companions and subjects of our hilarious sports, than abject 
slaves and enemies, or objects of alimentive lust. Then the 
fleet and fire-eyed barbs were transported from their desert 
homes, with all the appointments of a ducal progress, to lend 
their game and tireless speed to the ambition of our rural 
sports. Then the boar was left to whet his tusks and strength 
together in his native and inviolated solitudes, until his savage 
energies came to him, and he was fitted to add that hardy 
attraction to the chase which danger gives. So was the stag 
nourished in those solemn forest haunts where its antlered 
pride grew and was matured for the noble struggle of its 
chase. Even the falcon, with its steel-hinged wings, and in- 
domitable wildness, was brought down from its crag-eyrie to 
serve our pastimes; and falconry became the most graceful 
of all the sports in which the two sexes elegantly united. 
Then came the manly fox hunt, in which sly Reynard’s cun- 
ning was made to increase the joviality and excitement of 
the pursuit, and from which this creature has made itself 
associate with the lusty habitudes and ruddy cheeks of the 
English gentry. 
But the free and courteous indications thus nourished, 
soon opened for the race a new field, as well as novel sur- 
roundiags, in which their legitimate results would be wrought 
